Types of Companies Included: A wide variety of U.S. small-cap stocks. The Russell 2000 includes approximately 2000 of the smallest companies in the Russell 3000 and is a widely used barometer for judging the strength of the U.S. small-cap market. Investors wanting to gain exposure to wide variety of small-cap stocks will often use an ETF based on the Russell 2000.

Sector Weightings: While the small-cap stocks are spread across many sectors, there is a significantly greater representation of financial, information technology, health care, consumer discretionary, and industrial companies compared to companies in the materials, energy, utilities, consumer staples, and telecommunications sectors.

Individual Company Weight: While not equally weighed, the ETF is diversified with no one company representing a significant percentage of the ETF.